31 Facts About Xavier Dolan

Xavier Dolan began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films.

Xavier Dolan first received international acclaim in 2009 for his feature film directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he starred in, wrote, and produced, and which premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section and won three awards from the program.

Xavier Dolan has won many accolades for his work, including the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mommy and the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for It's Only the End of the World.

Xavier Dolan has won several Canadian Screen Awards and Cesar Awards.

Xavier Dolan is the son of Genevieve Dolan, a Quebecois public college administrator with Irish roots, and Manuel Tadros, an Egyptian-Canadian actor and singer of Coptic and Lebanese descent.

Xavier Dolan's parents divorced when he was 2 years old, leaving his mother to take care of him in suburban Montreal.

Xavier Dolan has an older half-brother from his father's previous relationship.

Xavier Dolan began acting at the age of 4, after his aunt, a production manager, suggested he auditioned for a minor role in a TV drama.

Xavier Dolan kept working until he was 8, when his mother, unable to cope with such a hyperactive child, sent him to boarding school in rural Quebec for 5 years.

Xavier Dolan's extensive dubbing career started to intensify at this time, as Dolan found it hard to audition and get acting jobs.

Xavier Dolan reportedly began writing the script when he was 16 years old.

Xavier Dolan said the only thing that woman and her had in common was that they were both stuck in traffic on a bridge every morning.

Xavier Dolan later said that the film was "flawed" and Peter Brunette of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a somewhat uneven film that demonstrates a great deal of talent".

The second feature film Xavier Dolan directed, Heartbeats, was financed privately.

In May 2012, Xavier Dolan announced that his fourth film would be an adaptation of Michel Marc Bouchard's play Tom at the Farm.

Xavier Dolan's next film was an adaptation of the play by, titled It's Only the End of the World.

Xavier Dolan won 3 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Achievement in Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In February 2018, Xavier Dolan confirmed via Instagram that Chastain had been cut from the film, and that the story had been altered throughout post-production.

In November 2022, Xavier Dolan indicated to Le Journal de Montreal his desire to take a break from the film industry.

In July 2023, in two separate interviews with the Spanish newspapers El Paisand El Mundo, when asked about this break, Xavier Dolan explained that he intended to retire from cinema.

In 2015, Xavier Dolan was selected to serve on the jury for the main competition section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Xavier Dolan received the Juno Award for Video of the Year for directing the video.

Xavier Dolan played supporting roles in two 2018 American films: Boy Erased, opposite Lucas Hedges and Troye Sivan, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival; and Bad Times at the El Royale, as British-accented music producer Buddy Sunday.

Xavier Dolan appeared in the horror follow-up It Chapter Two in 2019, after publicly praising its first installation.

Xavier Dolan has starred in Lost Illusions, an adaption of by, directed by Xavier Giannoli.

In December 2021, Xavier Dolan confirmed via Instagram the end of the shooting of his first TV Drama, The Night Logan Woke Up, based on Michel Marc Bouchard's play of the same name.

Xavier Dolan has said that he is not particularly influenced by any specific directors, though in 2009, he identified Michael Haneke as one of his favourite directors for his precise camerawork and strong writing, citing Haneke's Funny Games and The Piano Teacher as favourites.

Xavier Dolan has cited seeing the film Titanic as an early influence on his decision to enter the film industry.

Xavier Dolan has mentioned paying tribute to My Own Private Idaho with a sequence in I Killed My Mother, and that he was influenced by the frog rain scene at the end of Magnolia, but said in 2013,.

Xavier Dolan is gay and described his first film I Killed My Mother as semi-autobiographical.

Xavier Dolan is a voice actor and has dubbed several films in Quebec French.